conlangfandomcom-20200223-history
Adwan
Adwan (Ad: Aðwana) is a partially naturalistic con-lang invented for the sake of gaining a wider understanding of general linguistics. The language itself developed a life of its own, and with each passing day, it grows with more vocabulary, more additions, and more characteristics that make it stand out from other inflecting languages. Name The name "aðwana" comes from the archaic Adwanic noun, "aðe", which means "mind"; and "wan", which means "to speak". It is an archaic compound word, not used anymore due to an evolved vocabulary, which means "a spoken mind." Mini Vocabulary Lists For the sake of having a record of vocabulary, thematic vocabulary lists have been added here! Geography The fictional country of Adwania is located in the continent of Europe, right off of Iceland. It is an island, slightly larger than Iceland yet not as big as the UK. Situated right off of Scandinavia, it is a wonder that Adwania's language, Adwan or Adwanic, not only doesn't belong to any of the Germanic languages, but doesn't seem to fit into any of the main European languages. A cultural isolate, Adwania has been inhabited by the Adwanic people for an unknown amount of time. The land of Adwania has been particularly hard to travel to in the past due to its geographic location, and its geology, for the edges of the east of Adwania are cliffs too high for many explorers to explore in. Not many people have tried to conquer Adwania due to its isolation to other countries; the isolation caused many to think of it in bad terms when thinking about trade and the such, thus leaving Adwania to be a peacefully isolated country. Due to its geography, Adwania has cold winters, but due to it being in the ocean and the currents hitting it, many springs and summers are warm thanks to the Ocean's current and breeze. Adwan, like Iceland, is very mountainous, though not to the extent that Iceland is. Phonology Adwan has a moderately unique phonology, as it has extensive use of using the consonant /j/ coupled with both vowels AND consonants. It is said that Adwan tends to sound like a mixture of Icelandic, Norwegian, Czech, and Polish. Adwan is percieved to be in the middle between a syllable timed language, and a stress timed language. However, it must be noted that the length of Adwan's vowels'' ''have no grammatical effect, while the stress put upon them does. */ŋ/ is only seen in the nasal vowels ą', 'ę, and ų'. Syllable Formation Adwan, in general, doesn't have a strict rule on the formation of it's words, the placement of consonants and nouns, and syllables, but it does follow a general rule that no more than ''eight letters can make up a syllable. Vowels aren't always necessary to produce syllables, as many consonants can act as syllable nuclei. Among these consonants are r'', ''n, l'', ''m, d'', ''ď, and ž''. The ''n, however, does '''not act as a syllable nucleus when used in declensions. *The general possibilities for a syllable can follow as so: (V)©(V)©(V)©(V)©(V) *Note, there can only be one vowel in a syllable, but up to 3-4 consonants. An example of an eight-lettered word that has no vowels is srpjmščn, or apocolypse; ''this word actually has ''3 syllables, thanks to the consonants that act as syllable nuclei. Usually a schwa(ə) is inserted before the syllable nuclei. Alphabet and Orthography Adwan is a fairly phonetic language; everything is sounded out as it is written. "Pevle" will always be pronounced /pevle/, and "Ar" will always be pronounced /ar/. There is only one sound change that isn't marked directly by the orthography, and that is the nasalization of ‘m’. Generally, for a lot of consonants, ’m’ will become nasalized; so if ‘m’ isn't a dominant, stressed consonant, it will be /ɱ/; A good English example is the word "symphony". You don't say /sɪmfəni:/, since the m is not voiced; you say /sɪɱfəni:/, with a weak, nasalized m. M is NEVER nazalized when in the beggining of a word, or when predecing a vowel. Note, for the vowels A, E, I, O, U and Y, an acute accent can be added to focus stress on that particular syllable (this happens a lot when the stress isn't on the penultimate syllable. When the penultimate syllable rule is broken, an acute accent occurs to guide stress, and elongate the noun). Ex: *The adjective Jĕþór, or blue, has an accute accent on the last vowel, which changes the word's stress to the last syllable, as opposed to the penultimate syllable. Many times, however, a word will be seen with an accent on the penultimate syllable. This is to stabilize, on some words, the stress, as the number of syllables might change during declension and conjugation. Example: *''Byblyobéfa'' already has, by default, stress on the e'' before the ''f. However, as declension occurs and more syllables might be added, the stress it kept on the e, as opposed to changing to the default penultimate syllable. #The Locative case is the only singular case for first declensions that adds on another syllable, so byblyobéfa, which is bookcase, in the Locative, would be byblyobéfene. Without the accent, the stress would have moved on to the second-to-last e'', but the acute accent prevented that. HOWEVER, for consonants, the acute accent represents a preceding /j/ sound; ŕ = jr; ś=js, etc. This is mainly due to the fact that when there'd be vowels preceding the j which preceded consonants, new phonemes would form and throw off the meanings. NOTES: *Consonants with acute accents are a seperate letter of the alphabet, and are, therefore, a part of the alphabet, as opposed to vowels which are just stress-change indicators. *Many languages use Dž to represent /dʒ/; however, in Adwan, since there is already a grampheme for /dʒ/, when d and ž (dž) are grouped together, they don't form a diphthong and the d is voiced; therefore, Dž would be like the pronounciation of ''Drz in the Polish word Drzwi. Dialect changes There are two different dialects that are mutually intelligible; the eastern dialect, which has the pronunciations below, tend to reflect the more Slavic side of Adwan. *A: a becomes æ *E: ɛ becomes e *Č: tʃ becomes tɕ, or tʂ *G: g becomes ɣ *X: x becomes χ *J: j becomes ʎ *Ď: dʒ becomes dʑ *Ö: œ becomes y or ø *Š: ʃ becomes ɕ, or ʂ *V: v becomes β *Ž: ʒ becomes ʑ These changes don't make any difference to a non-native speaker, as they all fall within the same sound-range and Adwan doesn't need to make distinctions between them. Orthographic Changes Letters in the Adwanic Alphabet periodically change depending on the formality of their use. It is quite odd, though, as some letters are only used in standard form, and others are used in only formal and casual terms. Shown below are some of the orthographic changes that occur in Adwan. *Xx is also commonly written as Ȝȝ *Ẃẃ is also commonly written as Ƿƿ Many of these diacritics are purely historical and cultural, as many dialects have adopted many Germanic cultures into their own. Nevertheless, Xx is still used everyday, as it is only a matter of knowing that, just how there are many kinds of prthographic ways to write English (cursive, print, different types of a's and different types of g's, etc), there are different ways to write Adwan. Epenthesis Many words in Adwan will end and begin with the same sound, which can be problematic to speak when speaking such texts. A good example of sentences that do so is such a sentence: *''Žemyš šlynąč nëšlynąš aþö fevnaš nëfevnač.'' *''Žemyš šlynąč'' poses a problem, and if nothing is done, elision occurs, causing it to sound like this: žemy šlynąč, or žemyš lynąč To prevent this phonological phenomenon, also called elision, epenthesis occurs, which divides phonemes by adding an extra sound. This only ever occurs to words in which elision occurs on consonants, for with vowels, a glottal stop is used. While no written grapheme shows the epenthesis that goes on between matching consonants, it must be known that a /ɨ/ is put in between the double phonemes to avoid elision. Syntax and Morphology As in many Indo-European languages, Adwan is highly inflected; Adwan inflects nouns for number, grammatical case, and, seldomly, gender; Adjectives, and numbers decline for grammatical case; pronouns decline for grammatical person and gramatical case, and determiners decline for grammatical case. Verbs are conjugated (and agglutinated, to an extent) for tense, mood, and aspect. A distinctive feature in Adwan is the lack of auxilliary verbs, as they are all conjugated into the verb. Due to heavy inflections, Adwan also lacks articles, so there is no difference between "the cat likes mice" or "a cat likes mice"'; the distinction between a regular cat liking mice, and cats generally liking mice is made thanks to the Generic mood of verbs. Word Order Adwan's general word order follows a VOS pattern, and, sometimes, a VSO pattern if the subject is in posession of someone or something. However, due to the heavy inflection that Adwan goes through, word order is quite free. The standard is VOS and VSO, yet many pieces of literature and poetry can follow other word orders. Other word orders are also used to emphasize things, if only used seldomly. Usually, questions are formed using intonation and stress (and the usage of a question mark), but if incredibly important, or necessary, OSV and OVS are formed. Note: It is also incredibly common to see SVO and SOV word orders among informal usages and in partial standardizations for those learning Adwan. General Rules: *Adverbs, generally, always follow a verb. *Usually, direct objects come first, and then indirect objects. Gender Gender in Adwan is used in a different degree than gender in other European languages are. While Adwan still preserves gender-based declensions, they completely define the noun, as opposed to just the noun being a feminine or a masculine noun. A good example of this is the noun Fevna, which means Parent. Like most nouns in Adwan, Fevna would be declined as a neuter noun, but fevna declined in the feminine, fevnač, would mean mother, or, literally feminine parent. Another example is šlyna, or child. Šlyna declined in the masculine, šlynaš, would be boy-child, or son. Many nouns in Adwan have three-way distinctions; the neuter or general, the masculine and the feminine. Nouns declined as masculine are literally masculine, (Ešnetanev literally means gentle-person, yet ešnetanef means gentleman, and ešnetanetł means gentlewoman. Another example of the three-way distinction is woman. Woman is löjek, man is löjex, and adult is löjen. Case Adwan inflects its nouns, adjectives, pronouns, determiners, and numbers. Nouns are inflected for number, grammatical case, and occasionally, gender; adjectives are inflected for grammatical case; pronouns are inflected for case, person, and number, and determiners and numbers are inflected for grammatical case. In Adwan, there are 7 cases; the Nominative, which marks the subject; the Accusative, which marks the direct object; the Ablative, which marks the causative object; the Genitive case, which marks relationship and posession; the Dative case, which marks the indirect object; the Locative case, which marks the location, and the Vocative case, which marks the noun being addressed. A good way to find out the case of a noun is to ask yourself these questions: Nominative: who? what? Accusative: I see what/who? Ablative: because of who/what? Genitive:'' of who/what?'' Dative:'' to whom/what?'' Locative: ''at/around what?'' Vocative: I call whom? Case examples in English: *'Nominative:' I''' like apples. #Since you are the subject, you are in the nominative. However, for phrases like these, Adwan lacks a nominative as it is a 'pro-dropping ''language. *'Accusative:' I like apples. #Apples are the ones being directly'' ''affected by the verb. No preposition governs the accusative, for the accusative has a direct connection with the verb. Apples here are in the accusative because they are the ones being affected by the verb. *'Ablative:' I like apples from Texas. #Texas, here, is in the ablative because it is the causing noun. Of course, there are also various prepositions that govern the Ablative, with the default being "from". The Ablative has a lot of similarities to Latin's Ablative and many Slavic languages's Instrumental case. *'Genitive:' I like my mom's apples. #English has a relatively alike system when it comes to posession. The Genitive marks the posessor, which, in this sentence, is mom". Note: a noun in the genitive is like saying "of the/a noun", so, typically, the genitive follows the noun or item in posession, as opposed to preceding it. *'Dative: '''I like to save some apples for my '''sister'. #The noun in the Dative here is sister, as it is the indirect object. The Dative, along with the Ablative and the Locative, are the three prepositional cases used in Adwan. Generally, prepositions such as "to", and "for" that refer to objects are in the Dative case. *'Locative:' I like to eat around the apple. #The noun in the Locative here is the apple, as it, too, is an indirect object, yet it has to do with location. Many times, prepositions like "to" are also in the Locative, if they have are aimed at a specific location. The Locative takes care of prepositions of direction and location. *'Vocative:' I love you, Apple. #The noun in the Vocative is the noun being adressed. Many times, they are names of people. It has the equivalent of "O, apple!", or "Dear Apple!". It deals with nouns that don't serve to function as actual objects, and no prepositions govern the Vocative. Example sentence using all cases: *Mom! Dad's apples are in front of the bookcase, along with the book I bought for my friend's birthday. *Fevnač! Čyryč jeg byblyobéfene afkrą fevnyš, morsašasnï saż čežuþ byblë žojöšnýčkandevog výjö za. Ignore the fact it doesn't make too much sense, I just tried to show a sentence that had all cases. Fevnač = Fevna, parent; Singular Feminine Vocative Čyryč = Čyren, locational to be; 3rd Neuter Person Plural, Present Perfective Indicative Jeg = In front of; preposition Byblyobéfene '''= Byblyobéfa, bookcase; Singular Neuter Locative '''Afkrą = Afkra, apple; Plural Nominative Fevnyš = Fevna, parent; Singular Masculine Genitive Morsašasnï = Morsašan, to purchase; 1st Person Past Perfect Indicative Saż = Sað, that(relative pronoun); Accusative Čežuþ = Along with; preposition Byblë = Bybla, book; Singular Neuter Accusative Žojöšnýčkandevog = Žojöšnýčkandevog, birthday; Singular Neuter Dative Výjö = Výje, friend; Singular Neuter Genitive Za '= Of me; 1st Person Genitive Pronoun Noun Declensions Nouns are one of the most important parts of speech in Adwan. Each noun is declined for above case according to function in speech and preposition, if any. Nouns are declined for Grammatical Case, Number, and, seldomly, Gender. Nouns will always either end in '-a, '-n', '-v '''or '-e', and are declined according to their ending. Nouns are, for the most part, generally declined as neuter nouns, though gender declensions are the same as neuter declensions, only with different suffixes. Most nouns are neuter by default until specified otherwise. For example: ''Parent in Adwan is Fevna, Father in Adwan is Fevnaš, and Mother is Fevnač. Nouns in the first and second declensions are made feminine by adding the suffix -č, and are made masculine by adding the suffix -š. Nouns in the third and fourth declensions, however, go through consonant changes. In the third declensions, the first n of the declension turns into x. Therefore, gwinevren, or professor, declined in the feminine dative would be gwinevrekoð. ''Likewise, it being declined in the masculine dative would be ''gwinevrexoð. Nouns in the fourth declension follow the same pattern, but with different consonants. Nouns in the fourth declension that are declined in the masculine change the v into an f. Ešnetanev, for example, is gentleperson, but to have gentleman, it would be declined into the masculine, which would end up looking like ešnetanef. Oddly enough, the feminine paradigm for the fourth declensions have a different consonant that might cause problems. Tľ replaces the ending v, therefore gentlewomen would be ešnetanetł. Note: While Fevna's ''declensions mean ''parent/mother/father, those terms are only ever used in formal terms. Mom is, typically, Mă!, ''and ''Dad is Bă! ''there are many variations, however, as ''Mom can be mynă! (mom, used with a diminutive), and dad can be pynă!. Noun Diminutives Diminutives are changes or additions added to nouns to change the degree of size, affection, etc. Adwan uses diminutives much more than English does, but not so much like Czech or Spanish. Diminutives in Adwan express intimacy and size. Diminutives are expressed by infixes and consonant changes in Adwanic nouns. Depending on which declension and gender a noun belongs to, the diminutive will change. Nouns in the first declension and second declension follow the input of infixes, while nouns in the third and fourth declensions follow consonant changes. Shown below is an example of a noun from each declension with the diminutives used. *'NEUTER' #''Afkra'' → Afkr'yn'a: little apple #''Frojune'' → Froju'lyk'ne: little airplane #''Gruščyn'' → Gruščy'ď': little fruit #''Kalyv'' → Kaly'b'; little shark *'MASCULINE' #''Šlynaš'' → Šly'ny'naš; little boy #''Yjerneš'' → Yjer'lyk'ne; little boy student #''Löjex'' → Löje'žm'; little man #''Ešnetanef'' → Ešnetane'šm'; little gentleman *'FEMININE' #''Pravlač'' → Pravl'yn'ač; little sister #''Łuvžeč'' → Łuvž'lyk'eč; little actress #''Löjek'' → Löje'ð'; little woman #''Ešnetanetł'' → Ešnetane'l'; little gentlewoman For nouns in the first declension, the infix '-yn'- is added before the last letter of the word, which, in the first declensions, is before the last "a"; therefore, afkra would be afkryna, so on and so forth. Declensions go on as if there was never a Diminutive, so afkryna in the dative would be afkryno, so on and so forth. For the nouns in the second declension, the infix '-lyk-' is added; the same rules apply for the second declensions as they do for the first declensions, therefore a noun like eze would be ezlyke. It must be noted that diminutives for nouns in the first and second declensions don't change for gender at all. Nouns in the third and fourth declensions follow consonant changes, as opposed to infixes. Nouns in the third declension have three different forms of diminutives for each noun: one for masculine, one for feminine, and one for neuter nouns. Neuter nouns change their n'' to ''ď, therefore löjen, or human, would be löjeď were it to have a diminutive. Masculine nouns change their x'' to ''žm, and feminine nouns change their k'' to ''ð. Nouns in the fourth declensions, like the nouns in the third declension, go through different changes depending on what gender they are. Masculine nouns change their masculine ending of f'' to ''šm, therefore, ešnetanef becomes ešnetanešm. Neuter nouns change their v'' to ''b, therefore ešnetanev becomes ešnetaneb. Feminine nouns change their tł to l'', therefore gentlewoman, or ''ešnetanetł becomes ešnetanel. Declensions don't change, therefore a neuter noun in the accusative, which, without diminutive would be ešnetanevyn, would be ešnetanebyn. Adjectives Adjectives in Adwan are much less complicated than other declensions are. Adjectives are inflected only for grammatical case, and they only have three declensions. Many of these declensions have alike, similar, or even share the same endings as some nouns and pronouns do, therefore it's essential to be able to spot them in their usage. Compound Words It is not uncommon to find long, multisyllable words in Adwan, and while they may look intimidating, they really aren't. Like many Germanic languages, Adwan has various compound words. It is not uncommon to see adjectives ripped of their endings and glued on to a noun. It is actually possible to do so, even if the noun isn't in a lexicon. For example; Žojöšnýčkandev, or birthday, actually means birthing date; žojöšnýčor means birthing, and kandev means date. It is very much like the English word for burthday, birth and day; or even the Spanish compound word for it, cumpleaños. Words are formed but removing the ending from an adjective (-or, -ad, or -ĕs), and adding the noun to it. Vowels are added, however, in place of the old suffix if the noun starts with a consonant. *Intended Obligation: Greďyhrăja; greďor + hrăja. *Moral Obligation: Joryhrăja: Joror + hrăja *Secondary Need: Šretamužev: Šretad + mužev *Atlantic Ocean: Aznafykóšana: Aznafor + kóšana Adjectives in the first declension (-or) take up the vowel "y" when being added to another noun if the noun starts with a syllable. Adjectives in the second declension take up the vowel "a", and adjectives in the third declension take up "e". While it is incredibly common to use compound words in Names, Addresses, Organizations, Foods and other Proper nouns, compound words are rarely used, usually in either informal writings, or in specifically styled writings (such as poems lacking in adjectives, etc). It is also very common to see compound words with what seems to be two nouns. A good example is a headache, mežnăxašyn; the same rules apply to the noun which appears to act like an adjective; the ending is taken off, only with nouns, the vowel added depends on its declension. Nouns in the first declension add the vowel "ă". Nouns in the second declension add the vowel "ĕ". Nouns in the third and fourth declensions, however, don't drop the root, but add another vowel to it: Nouns in the third declension add the vowel "ë". Nouns in the fourth declension add the vowel "ï". Affixes Words in Adwan are not created by throwing together a string of affixes. Words are roots that can only be declined, or agglutinated to other words to create compound words. However, there are affixes that are added to nouns to add meanings, though they're not necessarily the same kind of meaning that a word full of affixes, like antidisestablismentarianism, has. The conjunction of "and"; Në- and Ą The prefix në-'' symbolizes the conjunction "and". Adwan has two different kinds of and conjunctions; the one that connects different clauses together, and the one that lists objects. The one that connects clauses together. The fragment ''They are endowed with reason '''and' conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood uses both types of and conjunctions; the one connecting clauses is underlined, and the one used for listing things, ''në- is bolded. Notice the different uses of the conjunction "and". *I have a mom and a dad --> Þefas fevnač në'fevnaš. *I like school and I like to learn --> Þuvas ezĕ ''ą þuvas gerčan. Notice that when using the conjunction "ą", it links two clauses, or it introduces what would've been another sentence (usually with a verb); 'në-' simply adds on to the clause. The negation of "not"; Nï- and -ta The prefix nï-'' is not as complicated as ''në-''; while the suffix -''ta in nouns represents the negation of a verb (thus eliminating the need of an adverb to negate verbs with), the prefix -''nï'' functions as the conjunction form of negation. Pay attention to the usage of each affix and its usage. *I don't like headaches --> Þuras'''ta mežnăxašynaf. *Not every dog is timid ---> Ïnys plasor nï'''načt doja. Nï- can attach itself to virtually and part of speach that uses negation '''except for verbs. All other conjunctions are expressed by individual words, rather than by affixes. Prounoun Declensions Personal pronouns Personal pronouns are the most irregular of all words in Adwan, for they don't necessarily follow a uniform way of changing affixes like Nouns and Adjectives do. Personal pronouns don't all end in the same suffix, leaving personal pronouns in Adwan to be the most irregular parts of speech in the whole language. Pronouns also decline to the Comitative case, which is similar to the instrumental case, and it represents "with". Therefore, kona is with me. Note: Personal Pronouns declined in the Genitive are the equivalent to both English posessive determiners, and possessive pronouns. Adwan has no distinction between posessive pronouns and posessive adjectives, for the role of posession is maintained solely by the genitive declensions of said pronouns. An important thing to remember is the use of epenthesis that many words in general go under, so ‘Ju’ would sould like ‘iju’, only the ‘i’ being weaker than it would be in normal terms. Relative Pronouns Relative pronouns are the most regular of the pronouns in Adwan, as they follow the general rules of suffix changes and what-not. Relative pronouns are used when a noun is already in use, but that same noun has a double case. This problem occurs quite a bit, and is solved by the use of Relative pronouns; they also work to link sentences together and take the place of subjects that aren't specified. All relative pronouns end in -að, so they all follow this declension Interrogative Pronouns Many interrogative and relative pronouns are easily the same in many languages such as English, Spanish, Czech and French, etc, yet however Adwan makes distinctions between each. While Relative pronouns substitute subjects, interrogative pronouns, work as interrogative particles or indicators of question in Adwan, not to mention they ask for a specific thing that would be noun. Common Interrogative Pronouns are "Where" and "What"; they are, however, mixed up with many Relative pronouns as they are identical in many languages. All interrogative pronouns end in -d. NOTE: Interrogative pronouns ALWAYS convert the sentence to an OSV or OVS (generally OVS) word order. An interrogative in a VOS or VSO is grammatically incorrect. Example of interrogatives: *''What'' is your name? = Þyð þuðys lyra śu? *''How'' are you? = Joð ïnus? Pronoun declensions work like nouns; for the most part, many pronouns will be accusative, although many other cases can be used. When the Dative, Locative or the Ablative is used, a preposition governing said case must precede it (þyd in the dative would require the prepositions in the dative to be used, unless "to" is to be assumed, etc). Interrogative Pronouns in Adwan *What = Þyd *Which = Had *Who = Łud *How much = Ďud *What kind = Žed *Why = Šyd *How = Kăd *Whose = Used by who's Genitive. *Where = Hyd *When = Ẃed Demostrative Pronouns: Proximal, Medial & Distal Along with personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns are irregular, too, and don't follow a pattern of suffix-changing declensions, like Nouns, Adjectives, and Numbers do. Demonstrative pronouns in Adwan have three distinctions: proximal, which refers to objects near the speaker (this, in English), medial, objects near the address, and distal, objects far from both (that for English) (Note: That in English can be both medial and distal). This is similar to the demonstrative pronouns in Spanish (este/''esto''/''esta'' for proximal, ese/eso/esa for medial, aquello/aquel/aquella for distal). If you can see, all declined forms of each demonstrative pronoun keeps the first and last letters of the word, and declines by changing, adding or subtracting infixes, rather than changing prefixes or suffixes. Note: While here and there are not '''demonstrative pronouns, they still match the criteria of Proximal, Medial and Distal objects, therefore play a major role along with demonstratives. Adwanic demonstrative pronouns go through a process of ''Vowel Migration, ''a type of Ablaut, when changing to plural; each vowel is assigned a specific part in a cycle of vowels phonemes, and to pluralize, they go through a transformation that leads them to the next vowel in line. The order of Vowel Migration has three different cycles, and they go as so: '''First Cycle: Y = U, U = E, E = A, A = Y Second Cycle: Ö = Ĕ, Ĕ = Ą, Ą = Ë, Ë = Ö Third Cycle: Ï = I, I = Ę, Ę = O, O= Ï Prepositions Prepositions in Adwan, naturally, come before the nouns they describe, and govern up to three cases. The Ablative, the Dative, and the Locative cases are the three prepositional cases in Adwan. Prepositions governed to the Ablative are prepositions of instrument and cause. Examples of these would be prepositions like "with"(zuþ), "from" (žę), etc. By default, however, the Ablative takes up the preposition "from", therefore, in most casual writing, from is scarcely seen, merely being assumed by the lack of prepositions that follow a noun or adjective in the Ablative. Prepositions goverened to the Dative are a lot different in aspect than the other prepositions. They are prepositions that, for the most, have the same meaning in English. They are prepositions of ideas, many times they are called "Nonlocational Locatives", for many prepositions have the same meaning, in English, for the Locative. Prepositions governing the Dative are prepositions such as "to"(šču), "for" (y''), "during"(''kurų), etc. The Dative, however, takes up, by default, the preposition for "to"(šču), therefore, the actual preposition for "to, for the dative case, is rarely seen. Prepositions governed to the Locative are probably the most abundant, as they are prepositions of direction and location. Prepositions such as "at" (er), "over"(xu), "in front of"(jeg), etc, govern the locative case. The Locative case, by default, takes up the preposition "at", (er), therefore that preposition is not seen as much as it would be should it not have been taken up by default. Many prepositions in the Locative have Dative counterparts (such as in, which in the dative, could be in a spirit of brotherhood, as opposed to the locative, which is in my house.) So, as stated above, the most commonly interpreted and assumed prepositions are: *‘From’, "žę" *‘To’ in the Dative, "šču" and *‘At’, "er". Note; although these are the most commonly interpreted, they are also the rarest used prepositions due to Cases taking them up by default. Verbs Verbs in Adwan are conjugated by affix changes and agglutinations, depending on the tenses used. Verbs in Adwan are conjugated for Tense, Mood, Aspect Number and Person, not to mention the class of verbs they are. There are three classes of verbs in Adwan; -an verbs, -en verbs, and -on verbs; they are all conjugated differently, yet follow a similar patter in conjugation. There are no verbs that are conjugated irregularly. Ironically, while other languages have verbs that follow orthographies and have irregular conjugations, Adwan has verbs that don't follow verb suffix rules, but follow a particular conjugation pattern. There is no distinction as to why some verbs end in -on, -en, and -an. To Be Adwan has 3 different types of to be's. The first one is a locative to be, to be used when in, at, or near a location. This verb is Čyren; usually, in informal writing, Čyren could be used and the noun, although declined in the locative, wouldn't require a preposition if it was simple, as context could tell the rest. Also, when Čyren is used, it is a great indicator for a noun in the locative case. The second verb for to be is Ïn, and it is used exclusively with predicate adjectives. The usage of Ïn used to be rare, as adjectives had different declensions, but Ïn was revived with the loss of the Predicate Adjective declensions. Generally, if you're adding an adjective after ‘to be’, Ïn would be used. The last but not least verb is Þuðan, the first verb in the entire Adwan language. This verb is used when neither of the two other ‘to be's’ match the criteria, say I am a boy would use þuðan, so on and so forth. Verb Conjugations Due to the lack of auxilliary verbs in Adwan, there are a higher number of conjugation paradigms for Adwanic verbs than there are in many languages. Person Adwanic verbs conjugate to four grammatical persons: *First Person *Second Person *Third Person *Third Person Feminine *Third Person Masculine *Fourth Person Number Adwanic verbs conjugate to two grammatical numbers: *Singular *Plural Tense Adwanic verbs conjugate to threegrammatical tenses: *Past *Present *Future Aspect Adwanic verbs conjugate to four grammatical aspects: *Perfect *Perfective *Imperfective *Inchoative The Aspects in Adwan are very much like the ones in English, if only different slightly. The perfect is like English's perfect, the perfective is the simple, and the imperfective is relatively close to the progressive/continuous in English. Mood Adwanic verbs conjugate to seven grammatical moods: *Indicative *Generic *Declarative *Subjunctive *Imperative *Conditional *Precative Polarity Adwanic verbs conjugate to two grammatical polarities: *Affirmative *Negative Voice Adwanic verbs conjugate to three grammatical voices: *Active *Passive *Middle Voice Paradigm Of the three voices in Adwan, the Active voice is the most important, as it contains all the vital affixes and conjugations. The active voice is, for those that don't know what it is, when the subject is the doer of the verb, which is in many cases, the most voice used. *'Active voice:' I ate a fish. *'Passive voice:' I was eaten by a fish. *'Middle voice: '''I ate myself. Many times, the middle voice is also called the ''reflexive voice. One well known language that has this voice is Ancient Greek. Another thing to note about the Passive and the Middle voice: each have a static suffix that denote their usage. One must know the Active voice paradigms to know the passive and middle voice paradigms, as they build off of the active voice. *'Active voice:' I ate a fish --> Hozje šulnu. *'Passive voice:' I was eaten by a fish --> Hozjeþno šulnë. The fish here is the cause of you being eaten, since you're still the subject. The Passive voice, however, has declined much, and is only used for formal and abstract things such as "i am born..", etc. Usually, the Passive voice has been abandoned for the active (I was eaten by a fish, would be A fish ate me) *'Middle' voice: 'I ate myself --> ''Hozjeðnu. The middle voice was never used much, as its only use was to have the same functionality as reflexive pronouns, which don't exist in Adwan. NOTE: Below you'll notice some affixes change per mood. This is due to Vowel Harmony. Although it is '''not a big feature in Adwan, it still exists in Mood changes. Epenthesis rules apply to Passive and Middle voice affixes. Reciprocal Actions: The Middle Voice Adwan lacks many words that English lacks, mainly because of the inflections that go on in many words. A great example is reflexive pronouns, such as myself, yourself, etc. Another thing that is missing is the noun "eachother", or the compilation of "eachother" by adding "each" and "other". Reciprocal actions such as "they see eachother" and the like, occur using the Middle voice. Due to lack of Reflexive pronouns, the Middle voice became widely used in place of what would have been reflexive verbs. A rather simple process, the verb is simply conjugated for person (and number), and then the respective affix is added to the verb. The affix redirects the action back to the verb and the subject, leaving it to have the same effect that a reflexive verb or a reflexive pronoun would have left. Sentences which require people reciprocating actions use the Middle Voice. *''They see eachother'' would be'' Ŕyšaðę; that verb quite literally means ''see-they-themselves. *''Paul and Katrin give eachother a hug'' would be Fwaðyšaðę wyru Pălv nëKatryn, or give-they-themselvles hug Paul and-Katrin. '' *''You and my mom call eachother would be Ďežďučaðę hu nëfevnač za. Verbal Forms Supine The supine, a form of a verbal noun, is a form of turning the verb into a verbal noun, or a phrase. An example of this would be I went upstairs to sleep. A lot of times it can be confused with the infinitive, as English makes no distinction. Spanish, however, uses the prepositions a'' and ''para before the verb. In Adwan, a prefix is added to create the supine. Ďyk-'' ''is added to verbs that start with vowels. & Ďy-''' is added to verbs that start with consonants. One way to look at the Supine is to think the verb as a causative verb. For example: *I want to go to school to learn. The verb "to learn" is in the supine, for a verb is already being performed so the second verb could work. The distinctions between Supines varies with different languages, though Spanish does a good job of distinguishing is by placing a preposition (a'' or ''para) before an infinitive. French, too, does the same, and adds the prepositions à'' and ''pour before an infinitive to create the Supine. Therefore: *I want to go to school to learn. Would look like... *Þĕðac ton (al) ezi ďygerčas. Because "Gerčan" starts with a consonant, ďy is used, as opposed to ďyk. Another thing to note is that verbs in the Supine 'are still conjugated. '' Modal Verbs Adwan, as stated above, has no kind of auxilliary verb. Many things that English has are worded quite differently in Adwan, and this can be a throwoff, so here's the general way some things are worded as they are with not using some modal verbs that English has (like may, should, etc). Many of these are interchangable with tenses to fit the mood of a sentence. Also: many of these are so flexible in English, that some modal verbs have other uses than the ones stated below. Keep in mind these are just general, commonly used forms of these modal verbs. *'Would:' is expressed by the conditional mood.* *'Shall:' to have the intention to... #Example: I shall go to your house. #Would be: Þefas grédženav ton al vjóškene śu. #A literal translation is: I have the intention to go to house of you. *'Should:' to have the intended obligation to... #Example: They should be sweet to their sister. #Would be: Þefyš gredžyhrăju ïn fjor al pravloč aþö. #A literal translation is: They have the obligation to be sweet to sister of them. *'Can:' to have the ability to... #Example: I can't sleep. #Would be: Þefasta jerynoð zaðan. #A literal translation is:'' I have not the ability to sleep.'' *'Can:' to be able to... #Example: I can't sleep. #Would be: Ïnasta öryvad zaðan. #A literal translation is: I am not able to sleep. *'May:' to have the permission to... #Example: May I go home? #Would be: Þefas džykernevyn a ton al šorcómene za? #A literal translation is: I have the permission I to go to home/habitation of me? #Note: Adwan is a pro-drop language, which means personal pronouns are dropped if they're in the nominative; however, to ask a question, the pronoun is usually placed there. It has the same effect of the particle do in English. Questions like Do I have..? in Adwan would, when literally translated, say I Have I...? *'Have to: 'To have the secondary need of/to... #Example: I have to go to school. #Would be: Þefas šretamuževyn ton al ezi. #A literal translation is: I have the secondary need to go to school. #Note: This is used when it's not a necessity. Things like I need water, or I need sleep, things needed for survival, utilize the verb muževan, or to need. Phrases Category:Languages